tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post3048871315391875489..comments2016-12-09T22:19:45.384+02:00Comments on Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog: Coevolution of individualism–collectivism and the serotonin transporter geneDienekeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02082684850093948970noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-69065883604185288782009-12-22T11:03:17.263+02:002009-12-22T11:03:17.263+02:00Jack, exactly - and Poland, which is dubbed freque...Jack, exactly - and Poland, which is dubbed frequently &quot;pathological individualists country&quot; ...szopen@europe.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04219188379320432806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-1674706047713315542009-11-02T14:02:14.676+02:002009-11-02T14:02:14.676+02:00France and Italy have a relatively large number of...France and Italy have a relatively large number of people voting for various communist parties (10% each more or less). They are state centered countries with a corporativist mentality. <br />How they ended up so low in collectivism is something that makes me wonder.Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01148345006852811881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-25213790180468490302009-10-31T06:01:34.325+02:002009-10-31T06:01:34.325+02:00WTF!, it&#39;s open access.WTF!, it&#39;s open access.Majuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-20666123402843379002009-10-31T04:03:07.632+02:002009-10-31T04:03:07.632+02:00Here&#39;s the full study if anyone&#39;s interest...Here&#39;s the full study if anyone&#39;s interested:<br />http://rapidshare.com/files/299726965/rspb.2009.1650.full.pdfLamprechthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11509954348536523720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-39229075720022493162009-10-30T17:17:07.032+02:002009-10-30T17:17:07.032+02:00(1) I would be interested to know how they objecti...(1) I would be interested to know how they objectively quantified the &quot;individualism - collectivism&quot; axis.<br />(2) Maju is correct: the distribution is essentially vertical. Furthermore, data points from east asia have high leverage, so would potentially skew the conclusion.<br />(3) having lived in China, I am not surprised at the allegation that people in that country are &quot;calm&quot;. Imagine a 4-lane highway with 6 lines of traffic, with cars cutting each other off arbitrarily... and NO road rage. Imagine a city street filled with so many pedestrians that it looks like a crowded mall during the christmas shopping season, with people shoving each other aside... and NO outrage. I often wondered whether such tolerance was culturally-instilled or had a genetic basis. A genetic explanation seems plausible, especially because the Chinese system of collective labor extends far further back than the Communist revolution. (Some say it&#39;s based on the need for collective work to construct rice paddies, which are not simple engineering tasks that can be completed by a single laborer.) On the other hand, if you grow up in such a crowded society (in which the concept of personal space is alien), you certainly need to adapt to it.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01425165496948360078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-3947604894364926172009-10-30T06:03:08.463+02:002009-10-30T06:03:08.463+02:00Essentially it&#39;s a vertical identity: the alle...Essentially it&#39;s a vertical identity: the allele frequency does not really vary in all Western countries, in spite of such huge differences in &quot;collectivist&quot; tendencies (10-70%). Only the middle Eastern Asian bloc (remember that Singapore is mainly ethnic Chinese) shows some homogeneity but even among them Japan is clearly outside of the pattern, with a collectivist score of only slightly above 50%. <br /><br />Looks something more cultural than properly genetic, at least on light of this paper. The gene is distributed along ethnic lines and may have some correlation with the other pattern... but only a very rough, diffuse one. It can&#39;t be the only causant of the socio-political differences, which are largely independent.Majuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-56421621859042851642009-10-30T03:50:28.657+02:002009-10-30T03:50:28.657+02:00Can you cite another example of a gene with simila...Can you cite another example of a gene with similar clinical variation due to population structure, though? Or is this simply conjecture?Genetics and Evolutionary Biologyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13090684158358054678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-54875734304410129112009-10-30T00:02:23.935+02:002009-10-30T00:02:23.935+02:00While I&#39;m usually quite favourable to these so...While I&#39;m usually quite favourable to these sorts of hypotheses, it seems like they could have plunked any gene with similar clinal variation due to population structure and got the same result. I&#39;m unconvinced. <br /><br />Would they argue that changes in the incidence of collectivism/individualism within a country would be driven by changes in allelic frequency?TwoYakshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18004999495564178762noreply@blogger.com